1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a printer such as a bankbook printing machine for use in a financial institution, and more particularly to a ribbon mask opening mechanism for allowing an operator to simply and quickly replace a printing ribbon and also to a deflector mechanism for preventing the jam of a deformed recording medium.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In a financial institution such as a bank, there has been widely used in recent years a printing machine for printing necessary data such as unentered data on a printing medium such as a bankbook or a voucher inserted into the machine. The restoration from trouble such as jamming or the replacement of an ink ribbon in the printing machine is performed by a bank teller. Accordingly, it is required to simplify the replacement of the ink ribbon so that the ribbon can be simply replaced even by an unaccustomed teller. A ribbon mask for guiding and holding the ribbon is mounted under a printing portion formed at the lower end of a print head. A narrow gap defined between the print head and the ribbon mask hinders smooth replacement of the ribbon. Therefore, it is required to largely open the ribbon mask in replacing the ribbon.
A conventional printer generally used includes a carriage slidably supported to a shaft and horizontally movable along the shaft, a print head mounted on the carriage, a printing ribbon guided along a printing portion of the print head, and a ribbon mask for guiding and holding the printing ribbon. Further, a known opening mechanism for the ribbon mask is designed to downward incline the ribbon mask about a shaft perpendicular to a feeding direction of the ribbon and thereby define a relatively large gap between the printing portion of the print head and the ribbon mask.
With the conventional ribbon mask opening mechanism mentioned above, the replacement of the ribbon is troublesome and requires much time. Further, there is a possibility that the ribbon may not be properly set in the printer.
A recording medium such as a bankbook inserted from an insert opening is fed through a feed path to a printing section, where printing is performed. When the recording medium in its deformed condition is inserted from the insert opening, the feed path that is not always flat is sometimes jammed with the recording medium. Accordingly, it is also required to provide a mechanism for preventing the above problem.
In this regard, a known printer includes a printing section having a platen, a front inserter unit provided on the front side of the printing section for feeding a recording medium from an insert opening to the printing section, a rear feed unit provided on the rear side of the printing section for feeding the recording medium fed through the front inserter unit, and a printer unit supported to the rear feed unit so as to be opened and closed with respect thereto and having a print head movable along the platen. This kind of printer sometimes employs a deflector for preventing the jam of the deformed recording medium between the front inserter unit and the printing section or between the printing section and the rear feed unit.
Usually, the deflector is pivotably provided on the rear feed unit so as to pivot in a predetermined angular range (e.g., 90 degrees). Specifically, the deflector is adapted to pivot between a first position where the deflector overlaps an end portion of a movable range of the print head just over the platen and a second position where the deflector is offset from the platen to the rear feed unit.
When the deflector is in the first position, the recording medium can be smoothly moved in a space defined between the deflector and the print head, thereby preventing the deformation of the recording medium. Further, in performing printing with the print head after stopping the recording medium, the deflector in the first position is retracted to the second position, thereby preventing the deflector from interfering with the printing operation of the print head. This kind of conventional deflector mechanism requires a driving source such as a solenoid for driving the deflector and further requires other parts associated with the driving source, thus increasing the number of parts to result in an increase in cost of the printer.